CHAPTER XXVI
THE CLOUDBURST
Billy sprang to where he had leaned his weapon against a tree, and his example was followed by Frank. Then, fully armed, they looked to where Andy was gazing at a spot in the underbrush.
"What is it?" called Billy, in a hoarse whisper.
"I can't see," was the answer, "but it was some large body, and it made off as soon as I came near."
"Be careful," advised the ranch lad, as he advanced nearer his chum.
"Why, what do you think it might be?" asked Frank. "A bear?"
"No bears around here," came in a whisper. "But it might be a wolf. We've been losing some cattle lately, and the beasts may have a den here."
The boys remained on the alert for several seconds, but they heard no further sounds.
"Guess it was a false alarm," spoke Andy, in a relieved voice. Frank did not answer, but, creeping cautiously forward, he bent low to the ground, and looked carefully for some tell-tale sign in the fast-disappearing light.
"See anything?" asked Frank.
"Yes," replied Billy. "I see some marks."
"Was it a wolf?"
"No—a man!" came the unexpected reply.
"A man?" chorused the Racer boys.
"Yes. Fellows, we're not alone on Golden Peak, and we've got to be on our guard," and Billy's voice was a trifle solemn.
"Who do you imagine it can be?" asked Frank. "Some of those same men who are making trouble for your uncle?"
"I shouldn't be surprised," said Billy, as he laid aside his gun. "They can't help but see the work going on at the dam, and they know what it means—the burying of Golden Peak under many feet of water. So they may be making a final effort to get at the treasure."
"And they may not like it that we are here," suggested Andy.
"Very likely not. But we've got as good a right as they have, and better," spoke the ranch boy. "We'll stick it out, and if they try any of their funny business we'll do the same."
"That's right!" exclaimed Frank, with a grim tightening of his lips. "We're with you from the word go."
"Well, as long as that's settled, suppose we see about grub?" suggested Andy, and his companions laughed at his practical idea. But, none the less, they were willing to conform to it, and soon the campfire was going, and the meal being cooked. Then the tent was put up, the horses picketed, and the boys drew lots to decide the order of standing watch. Frank's turn came first.
The night passed, however, without any alarm sounding, though each lad, in turn, was sure he heard suspicious noises, and with ready rifle stared off in the darkness. Nothing more, however, than the movement of some creature of the underbrush resulted.
"Who's going to get breakfast?" demanded Billy, some hours later, when the sun coming up over the prairies made the yellow rocks about them gleam.
"I got supper," came from Andy.
"Well, I got the water," asserted Frank.
"And I made the fire," laughed the ranch boy. "So as long as we all had a hand in that meal I guess we can do the same for breakfast."
Soon the eggs and bacon were sizzling in the frying pan over the fire, and the appetizing odor of coffee filled the air.
"My! but that certainly smells good!" exclaimed Andy.
"And it'll taste better," declared his brother, who was in charge of the actual cooking.
"And after grub we'll start in and explore Golden Peak," said Billy. "It's queer, that, though I've lived near it a long time, I never have been all over it. It's only recently that the rumor of treasure got started anew, and since then I haven't had much chance. But we'll run this thing down now."
"Unless those other fellows prevent us," suggested Frank.
Golden Peak was rather a curious formation. It was the central and the lowest of three hills in what was otherwise quite a flat country, and, with the twin points between which the river flowed, marked the beginning of a gentle rise that culminated in mountains many miles away. It was as if some great force of nature had sliced off the plain, leaving the prairies almost like a barn floor, but with these three peaks sticking up.
Golden Peak was of good height, and was several miles in circumference. It was well wooded, beginning at a point about half a mile up from the level, and there was much rocky formation.
The boys started on their explorations soon after breakfast, leaving the pack animals tethered, but riding their own steeds and carrying their guns.
"Suppose those fellows come upon our camp?" suggested Andy.
"Well, we've got to take that chance," answered Frank. "We can't hide it where they couldn't find it. But if they wreck it we'll take our revenge, that's all."
"I don't believe they'll bother us," said Billy. "They know this is the last round of the fight, and they're going to lose. If we come face to face with them they may act mean, but I don't believe they'd dare do anything."
They rode on for several miles and saw no signs of any other persons than themselves on Golden Peak. Now and then a movement in the underbrush indicated the passage of someone or some animal, but they could glimpse nothing.
They managed to shoot some sage hens and a partridge or two, insuring them a good dinner.
"But I don't see any treasure," complained Andy.
"There's where someone has been digging for it," remarked Billy, pointing to a hole in the ground. "But I guess he gave it up as a bad job."
There was quite an excavation amid the dirt and yellow rocks, but it had been abandoned after having been sunk to a depth of about five feet, showing that the looked-for gold, or other precious minerals, had not been found.
"I wonder what the treasure will be?" ventured Frank.
"Gold, I hope," said Billy. "As soon as we get to a likely place we'll do a little digging ourselves, but there's no use trying where these fellows have, for they'd find it if it was in plain sight."
"How will we know gold if we see it?" asked Frank.
"Oh, I've got a prospector's testing outfit," replied the ranch lad. "I can manage to wash some of the dirt or gravel, and if I get some yellow particles that will stand the acid test I'll know we're on the right track."
"These rocks look as if they contained some gold," suggested Andy, a little later, leaping from his horse to pick up several of the yellow stones.
Billy laughed.
"Lots of people are fooled by that," he said. "It is iron pyrites, a mixture of iron with lots of sulphur in it. The sulphur gives it the yellow color, and that's what makes Golden Peak show so yellow in the sun. Iron pyrites is often called 'fools' gold,' as it has fooled so many people. No, we've got to get a different yellow than that if we want to strike the treasure."
"Just my luck!" exclaimed Andy, in disgust, as he tossed the rocks aside.
All that day they roamed over Golden Peak, looking in vain for any signs of hidden wealth. The most that Billy hoped was that they would come to some out-cropping of precious metal that would tell of a hidden vein; but, though they did find several promising places, many of which had been prospected by the unknown men on the hill, the boys were not rewarded.
"Well, let's hike back to camp," proposed Frank, as the afternoon began to wane. "We don't want to stay in the open."
They found nothing disturbed when they got back to where they had left their burros and outfit, and supper was soon cooking.
The next day was a repetition of the first, and the boys were beginning to get discouraged. Not that they had been too hopeful, but they expected to find something.
"The treasure of Golden Peak is a myth!" exclaimed Frank, as they prepared to go back to camp on their third evening spent on the hill. "I say let's go somewhere else and camp."
"One more day," pleaded Andy, who was more hopeful than either of his companions. "Let's have one more day of it."
"All right," agreed Billy, "though I expect Uncle Richfield is getting impatient to close the gates of the dam and let the water rise. But he'll wait for us."
"It would be inconvenient if he didn't, and tried to drown us out," said Frank.
"Well, let's go down," began Andy, "and see——"
He did not finish the sentence, for he suddenly disappeared from sight, crashing through some bushes with a clatter of earth and stones.
"Hello! What's the matter?" gasped Frank.
"Andy, where are you?" yelled Billy.
"Down in a hole!" was the answer, in muffled tones. "I fell half-way through to China, I guess. Look out, don't follow me here."
Andy had been off his horse when the accident happened, or it might have been more serious. Frank now leaped from his animal and cautiously approached the place where his brother had fallen in. He saw an opening into some sort of cave, but, almost as he reached it, Andy came walking out, for the floor of the cavern, that had been concealed by the brush, was sloping.
"Well, what are you trying to do?" asked Frank.
"You can search me," answered Andy, grimly. "I didn't know that cave was there any more than you did. But it sure is a hole."
"Let's have a look," suggested Billy, and with his two chums he began pulling aside the bushes. Soon a good-sized opening was revealed, leading into a cavern the depth or size of which it was impossible to determine in the fast-gathering darkness.
"Let's go in!" cried impetuous Andy.
"Let's wait until morning," said his more cautious brother.
Billy stooped down and picked up something. It was a rusty knife, with a few specks of yellow stone.
"What have you got?" asked Frank.
"Someone has been in this cave—years ago I should judge by this rusty knife," said the ranch boy. "And, unless I'm very much mistaken, we've stumbled on the hiding place of the treasure."
"The treasure!" gasped Andy. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this is the most promising sign we've struck yet," went on Billy. "I think these are particles of gold. I can soon tell. Make a fire, so we can see."
One was kindled, and by the light of it the test was applied.
"Gold! It's gold all right!" fairly yelled Billy, as the biting acid did not tarnish the touchstone on which he rubbed the yellow particles. "There's gold in this cave, and this is probably where the old miner found his nuggets, just before he went crazy, and forgot the location of it. Since then the bushes have grown over the mouth of the cavern, and no one stumbled upon it until——"
"Until I stumbledinit!" interrupted Andy, with a laugh. "But if there's gold there let's go in and get it!"
"No," said Billy, after a moment's thought, "it's too late to-night. But we'll come the first thing in the morning, and, if the cave is big enough, we'll camp here instead of in the tent."
"But maybe those fellows will discover the cave in the night," objected Frank.
"There's not much danger," was Billy's opinion. "In fact I think those fellows have skipped out. We haven't seen any signs of 'em lately. But we can put the bushes back and in the darkness I don't believe those fellows will notice anything if they do come this way. Come on, fellows, get busy."
They soon had the entrance to the cave well concealed, and then, with their hearts filled with hope, they rode down to their camp, which they found undisturbed.
"We're going to have a storm," was Billy's forecast, as they got supper by lantern light. "But it won't matter, as we can get in the cave to-morrow and be dry while we are digging for gold."
"Just think of it!" cried Andy. "We have really found the treasure of Golden Peak!"
"Not yet," said the more careful Frank. "That old prospector may have taken it all out."
"But that's where it was, at any rate," declared Billy, looking at some of the shining yellow particles he had brought away with him.
They could hardly sleep that night, but at length did drop off in a doze, Andy taking the first watch. It was almost at an end, and he was about to awaken Billy, who was to relieve him, when he became aware of a curious noise up the valley at the end of which Golden Peak stood.
"I wonder what that is?" he mused. "It sounds like wind and rain."
At that moment a gust shook the tent, and Billy called:
"All right! I'm coming."
He glided out to join Andy a little later, and when he heard the sounds he said:
"It is rain. The storm's coming. No need to stand watch now. Let's make everything snug and stay in the tent."
Hardly had they done so when the downpour began, and it was a hard one. Fortunately the tent was waterproof, but it was sorely tried, for the wind was strong.
It was no fun getting breakfast the next morning, but they managed to boil coffee, and then, still in the downpour, they set out for the cave.
"No one's been here!" cried Andy in delight, as they saw that the bushes were not disturbed. "Now for the gold!"
They soon discovered that the cave was large enough to shelter them and their animals, and the patient beasts were glad enough to get in out of the wet.
Hardly had they made all snug, and prepared with torches and lanterns to explore the cavern, when there came a terrifying sound outside. It was like a great clap of thunder, followed by a roaring of waters. Billy rushed to the mouth of the cave.
"Fellows!" he cried, "we didn't get here a minute too soon. There's been a cloudburst, and the whole place below us will be flooded in another minute!"